Here we are! The Saint Martins Adult Bible Fellowship Prime Timers.

You are invited to join us in the Payne Education Center, rooms 207-209.  We meet each Sunday in between the 9 and 11am services from 10:10 to 10:50.  Our class is currently studying God's Living Covenant from the Old Testament. This week we meet a powerful woman in Deborah, from the book of Judges.

Pete Seale taught about leadership by a woman, and in the Old Testament no less!

Prime Timer Good News

Bill and Midge Shepard moved to Houston from Darien, Connecticut and are thankful for Houston weather! We hope they join the Prime Timers!

Sandy is another Rusk Elementary reading volunteer and she gave thanks for her student.

Leadership Counts!

Pete Seale led the class in our lesson from Judges 4. This is where the prophetess Deborah advises, and leads, Barak and his ten thousand men into battle with Sisera. Barak agrees to go into battle, but only if Deborah comes as well. Deborah agrees, but tells Barak that due to the way he accepts God's orders he will not receive the honor for the battle. In fact Sisera will be killed by a woman, Jael, who kills Sisera in her tent.

Deborah only appears in the Bible this once, and might be the most powerful female leader in the Bible, and in the Old Testament! The battle Barak wages against Sisera and King Jabin is particularly bloody, capping twenty years of oppression and ending with Sisera and every one of his soldiers dead.

Pete then compared Deborah and Barak as to their leadership qualities.

Deborah, the leader,  1) knew she was going to lead, 2) was able to listen 3) was experienced, (after all she was a judge) 4) wise and honest 5) fair minded and 6) knowledgeable.

Barak, the follower, was 1) trusted 2) also a listener and 3) decisive.

Perhaps because he was talking about leadership, the church, and a woman, Pete recalled the article in the saturday Houston Chronicle Religion section, an interview with our new Bishop Suffragan Dena Harrison. If you missed this interview click here. The interviewer is looking for material on the same-sex issues affecting the church, and Bishop Harrison handles the questions with aplomb.

Pete also recalled Texas Longhorn Quarterback Colt McCoy, after Saturday's 28-10 win over Oklahoma, telling a reporter he thanked God for the opportunity to play. This is an example of real leadership.

The terrible tragedy of the Amish children murdered by Charles Carl Roberts IV, is followed by an example of Christians at their best when Amish families began to pray for Robert's family.

All of this leads Pete to ask about our role:  are we leaders or followers. We follow the word of the Lord, but are we leaders to others in spreading the Good News? Discussion mentioned the military chain of command, where there are clearly defined leaders at each level as you head down the ranks. Out of the military these levels are much harder to define. Who hasn't had a boss at work who was appointed to a position, but really could not lead the people below him?

Pete then led our healing prayer and dismissed the class.

Prime Timers Contact names and numbers

Mentor

Rev. B. Massey Gentry
mgentry@stmartinsepiscopal.org

Leader

The Rev. Massey Gentry is the Prime Timers mentor.

Small figurine of the god Baal, 14-12th centuries, found in Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit), now in the Louvre Museum, Paris, France.

Astarte, or Ashtoret in Hebrew, the Phoenician god of fertility, sexuality and war. Currently at the Archaeological Museum of Spain, in Madrid.

The Lesson for Sunday, October 15th is titled "Prayer Makes the Difference"

Key Verses:  1 Samuel 7:9

Focus of the Lesson:  Praying for others shows our concern for them and, at some level, engages us in their plight. What are the effects of praying for others? Samuel prayed for the Israelites when they were threatened by the Philistines, and God saved them.

The reading is 1 Samuel 7:3-13. This text is from the New International Version^®.

   ³And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, "If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines." ⁴So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only.

   ⁵Then Samuel said, "Assemble all Israel at Mizpah and I will intercede with the LORD for you." ⁶When they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the LORD. On that day they fasted and there they confessed, "We have sinned against the LORD." And Samuel was leader of Israel at Mizpah.

   ⁷When the Philistines heard that Israel had assembled at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines came up to attack them. And when the Israelites heard of it, they were afraid because of the Philistines. ⁸They said to Samuel, "Do not stop crying out to the LORD our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines." ⁹Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it up as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. He cried out to the LORD on Israel's behalf, and the LORD answered him.

   ¹⁰While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle. But that day the LORD thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites. ¹¹The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Car.

   ¹²Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far has the LORD helped us." ¹³So the Philistines were subdued and did not invade Israelite territory again.

NIV®